{"id":878,"date":"2026-06-18T14:13:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/?p=878"},"modified":"2026-06-18T14:14:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:14:51","slug":"masculinitiesandfemininities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/masculinitiesandfemininities\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do we talk about masculinities and femininities?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you first start reading about gender, arguably one of the most confusing concepts to grapple with is how the terms \u2018masculinity\u2019 and \u2018femininity\u2019, which may once have seemed overarching and definitive, are often discussed as plural \u2018masculinities\u2019 and \u2018femininities\u2019. These plural terms, whilst ubiquitous in academia, don\u2019t seem to crop up too often in broader public conversations about gender.<\/p>\n

Before I answer the question posed in the title, I should point out that the explanation builds on the idea of gender as a socially constructed performance, which is explored in Johnny\u2019s Basics post on gender<\/a>. It also relies on the fundamental distinction between gender identity<\/em> and gender expression, <\/em>which the American Psychological Association (2023)<\/a> clarifies as follows:<\/p>\n

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\u201cGender identity refers to a person\u2019s internal sense of being male, female or something else; gender expression refers to the way a person communicates gender identity to others through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice or body characteristics.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Once we understand gender in this way, it becomes easier to see that there are countless ways of expressing masculinity and femininity through appearance, language, paralinguistic features<\/a>, and more. When we make the jump from masculinity to masculinities, for example, we can talk about masculinity within female characters without implying that they are men or boys (Onyx\u2019s post on Revolutionary Girl Utena <\/em><\/a>is a great example of this). We can also distinguish different gender expressions in different male characters, taking an intersectional approach to consider how different aspects of identity and experience can affect masculinity.<\/p>\n

Masculinities in different male characters <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Gaston \u2013\u00a0Cr: Disney \u00a91991<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Take the two characters depicted here: Gaston<\/a> (right) from Beauty and the Beast<\/em> (Disney, 1991) and Robert Freeman<\/a> (\u2018Granddad\u2019, below) from The Boondocks<\/em> (McGruder, 2005-2014).<\/p>\n

Even if this is your first impression of either of these characters, it\u2019s probably easy to visualise that they exhibit masculinity in different ways. Still, we probably wouldn\u2019t call one more or less masculine or feminine than the other. Whilst Gaston is the muscle-adorned poster boy for traditional masculinity, factors such as race and age influence Robert and his expression in a completely different way, with his character remaining recognisably masculine.<\/p>\n

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Robert Freeman (‘Granddad’) \u2013\u00a0Cr: McGruder \u00a92005-2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We might call Gaston a textbook example of the specific and widely discussed subcategory of masculinity, white hegemonic masculinity, which Vicky discusses in more detail in her post on <\/a>How to Train Your Dragon. <\/em>In simple terms, this type of masculinity seeks to assert and maintain dominance over other groups, whether it be women or men who do not perform gender in the same way (Jewkes et al., 2015). The fact that Gaston can adopt this form of gender expression is made possible through his being a young, powerful, white man, and is consistent with his use of language. Throughout the film, he repeatedly produces possessive utterances and pronouns to convey the sense of ownership he feels over women, clear in such declarations as \u201cI\u2019ll have Belle for my wife\u201d and \u201cBelle is mine\u201d. His character\u2019s linguistic strategies ultimately serve to position him as authoritative, as illustrated once more in the prescriptive normative statement<\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s not right for a woman to read\u201d, which morally condemns women for taking part in ordinary, genderless activities.<\/p>\n

Conversely, Robert\u2019s masculinity is impacted by his status as \u2018Granddad\u2019, and also his position as an older Black man living in a predominantly white suburb. Whilst this character does harbour some similarly unsavoury views on women, most of his authoritative language is reserved for commanding his two grandsons. Other linguistic features, such as frequent usage of the \u2018N-word\u2019 and grammatical structures influenced by African American Vernacular English (AAVE, sometimes called Ebonics<\/a>) are just some which highlight contrasts between Robert and Gaston. However, this representation becomes yet more complex when we consider the partial code-switching present in the clip below. Here, Robert is introduced to neighbourhood patriarch Ed Wuncler<\/a> and consequently begins using more polite and submissive forms of language.<\/p>\n